


What you can do

by MaximEve



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 16:51:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16022021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaximEve/pseuds/MaximEve
Summary: His master is as bright as the sun.He's just a measly candle.Said master would like to disagree.





	What you can do

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title: me writing something around Izou's Bond lvl 5 line because I've listened to it 30 times and I cried just as many times

“Yo, master. What’s it like in your time?”

The question comes rather suddenly. Ritsuka stops walking and looks at Izou with slight surprise in his eyes, but more than anything he’s confused. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I mean,” Izou stops as well, sheepishly scratching his cheek with his finger. “’s been like a hundred years or more since my time, right? The world’s gotta have changed. A lot.” 

He looks away, embarrassed, while waiting for a response. Ritsuka doesn’t really notice that, and instead starts thinking, even if technically it’s not a question that requires that much thinking.

“Well yeah, it did. There’s like, lots more means of transport… and I guess people don’t really use swords anymore, too. Now we use guns and stuff! Which… I guess is kinda bad but, you know.”

“Hmm…” Izou hums pensively. He absent-mindedly starts walking again, and Ritsuka hurries up after him, wondering what that was about.

 

It’s when they’re setting camp in a singularity that he asks again.

“So if the world is more advanced, that means… people can do more stuff, right?” Izou asks, out of the blue.

“Huh?” Ritsuka turns around. “Uh, yeah I guess? I think it kinda comes as a requirement, like, if there’s more stuff to create, there needs to be more people that know how to make it.”

“Hm. Yeah, makes sense” mumbles Izou, before returning to his duties, without waiting for the conversation to continue.

Ritsuka looks at him confused. “Why do you ask though?”

“Nothin’, don’t worry ‘bout it.”

Ritsuka decides to let it go for that night.

 

The next time Izou asks, it’s right after a fight with some enemies. Standard routine, nothing major. But the way Izou stands still, silently looking down at his hands, makes Ritsuka worried. For the Assassin to be so quiet after a battle, when usually he’d be overjoyed by even the smallest victory, it was weird, unnatural.

“Um… Izou, are you…” Ritsuka asks, hesitating a little, worried about saying something wrong. But he doesn’t get the chance to, as Izou interrupts him.

“Oi, Master. What do you know how to do?” He turns around to face Ritsuka, a casual look on his face, as if he doesn’t understand the concern he’s causing.

Ritsuka blinks a few times, confused more than ever. “I- what? What do you mean?”

“Like, what you’re good at. What you can do. You said in your world there needs to be lots of people knowing how to do stuff, right? So what can you do?”

Ritsuka tilts his head, dumbfounded. After a second, he thinks a little, trying to come up with a response, the earlier worry seemingly forgotten. “Well… I’m not a very good magus, for sure.” He chuckles a little at his own self-deprecating joke. Izou narrows his eyes at him.

“I don’t really have much I’m good at. Maybe… playing video games? But not really? I still haven’t really found anything I truly enjoy, to be honest with you.” Ritsuka looks sheepishly at him, with a face that says ‘I’m sorry’ for something Izou doesn’t really get, yet can at the same time.

Izou just looks at Ritsuka in silence for a few seconds, before grunting in affirmation and moving to go towards the group.

Ritsuka notices in time to grab his wrist to stop him and ask, “Hey, what’s this all about? You’ve been asking questions like this a lot lately.”

Izou doesn’t look at him this time. “... Nothin’, really. Just curious. About time I try to get to know the master I’ll be serving under for a good while, yeah?” He says, but in a way that doesn’t really convince Ritsuka. Not even Izou is really convinced.

He finally turns and looks at his master with that golden eye of his, a bored expression on his face. “You gonna let me go now?”

Ritsuka lets go of his wrist apologetically, but Izou is gone in a second, and Ritsuka is left alone and confused.

 

Later that night, Izou suddenly enters Ritsuka’s room.

Ritsuka turns around, surprised, but calms down after recognizing him. He chuckles a little. “Hey Izou. You here to ask me something else?"

Izou just looks at him with a weird expression. As if he’s angry, but not at Ritsuka, and also as if he’s not angry at all. He doesn’t really answer him, and instead comes in, letting the door close behind him. When they’re alone, he stays silent for a little bit more, almost… fidgety. Ritsuka starts to get worried, concern taking over his features as he gets up and takes a few steps towards Izou.

“Hey,” the sudden word breaks the silence. Ritsuka’s eyes widen just a bit. “if there’s anybody you’re not fond of… anyone. Just tell me.”

Izou has some sort of determination in that golden eye of his as he looks at Ritsuka, who doesn’t seem to understand.

Izou continues, but he seems hesitant. “Your enemy is also my enemy. And if you tell me to cut, I’ll cut down anybody. All of your enemies.” He grips his sword, not to draw it, but as if he’s holding onto it for dear life.

Ritsuka makes that usual sheepish smile of his that irritates Izou so much for many, many reasons. “Um… thanks? I mean, well, it’s nice that you seem so eager to do that, considering how annoyed you used to be all the time when I had recently summoned you-”

“This!” Izou suddenly raises his voice, cutting Ritsuka off. “This is… what I can do.” He falls silent. His knuckles are going white from holding onto his scabbard so tightly, then suddenly, he lets go, and his hand falls limp to his side. He hangs his head ever so slightly, looking defeated.

“No… no. For me, that’s… it’s not just what I can do.” He furrows his brow, now angry for real, angry at something that’s unclear to everyone and most of all to him. “This is all I have.”

Ritsuka, with a pained expression, takes a few more steps forward. He’s so close, he could just lift a hand. Put it on Izou’s shoulder. But he just raises it a little, and then hesitates, not knowing what to do.

“... I’m sorry, Master.” The feeble apology makes Ritsuka’s heart cry. Izou doesn’t, he has never cried since Ritsuka saw him. But Ritsuka also feels that by not crying, everything is just even more painful to see.

“No matter how I try, all a manslayer like me can do is cut down others.”

“I-I don’t care about that!” Ritsuka answers, raising his voice a bit out of worry. “I couldn’t care less! Even for me… this is all I can do as well-”

“But even so!” Izou shouts once again, leaving Ritsuka in silence. “Even so… you’re doin’ so much. So much more than I ever did in my life. You’re helpin’ save the world, dammit!” His golden eye looks at Ritsuka with sadness. He can see it, all the sadness about what his missing in his life. What he has missed, from disappearing so young.

Just a fish in a pond.

“You’re doin' so much, and I’m so little.” Izou hands his head low again, as if his anger is subsiding. “But I can do at least this thing for you. So please… whenever you need to. Whenever you feel you need me. Just tell me.” He grips his sword again, but it’s a shaky grip. “I’ll cut them…!” Even the anger in his voice is shaky. “I’ll cut them all for you…! I’m a manslater! I’m your manslayer, dammit, and I’ll cut all of your enemies! Better than I did in my time, better than I did for anyone else! So tell me, Master, tell me who to kill so that I can-!”

But this time, it’s Ritsuka that cuts him off, his master suddenly embracing his figure with his arms, and holding tightly, yet gently. Ritsuka buries his face in Izou’s shoulder, not caring for the strong smell of blood on his clothes. He keeps holding, silent, and Izou doesn’t do anything to get free.

“It’s okay.” Ritsuka whispers gently to Izou, like you’d do to a wounded animal. “I don’t care if that’s all you can do. I don’t care if you can do more than me, I don’t care if you’re better or worse than me. I don’t care about that.” He holds just a little bit tighter when he feels a single, tiny jolt from Izou’s body. “The only thing I care is that you’re here. And I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful and happy that you’re here.”

And he just keeps holding tighter as he feels Izou’s arms hesitantly grip his shirt as well, as he feels him placing his face on his own shoulder, as he feels something small and wet fall on his clothes, as he feels the broken, silent apologies coming from his servant.

And he holds him tighter as he smiles gently.

“You can be sorry all you want,” he whispers again. “I’ll just keep telling you how grateful I am...”

“... and that I love you, Izou.”

 

“So… video games, you called them?” Izou asks, out of the blue.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Why’s that?” Ritsuka looks at him, tilting his head with curiosity.

“... Can you teach me?”

Ritsuka beams with a big smile.

That big smile that Izou finds irritating for many, many reasons.


End file.
